Colorado Avalanche Former Coach, Francois Allaire, Retires

Francois Allaire, a former goalie coach for the Colorado Avalanche, has announced his retirement.

The Colorado Avalanche’s former goalie coach, Francois Allaire, has decided to retire after 32 years. He spent the last four years with the Avalanche.

The news came this morning via Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports:

Francois Allaire is one half of a goalie coach duo, with his younger brother Benoit Allaire. Francois Allaire started his goalie coach career in 1984 with the Montreal Canadiens — he was their first-ever goalie coach. Allaire stayed with the Canadiens until 1996.

He and his brother are large proponents of the butterfly style of goal tending. Francois Allaire’s most famous protégé, and Colorado Avalanche great, Patrick Roy, popularized the style to the point that it’s the go-to style in the NHL today, according to Sports Illustrated.

Francois Allaire won two Stanley Cups with the Canadiens, both times with his protégé in net, in 1986 and 1993. During that time period Roy won all three of his Vezina Trophies for goalie of the year, and he has credited Allaire with helping develop his goal tending style.

The Allaire Style of goal tending stresses the butterfly as a method to take up as much net as possible, along with big gear. It’s also based on sound positioning — so much so that at times old school hockey proponents have grumbled that all Allaire’s goalies do is get in front of the puck to stop it (rather than bat it away or catch it).

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After his time with the Canadiens, Allaire moved on to the Anaheim Ducks, where he won another Stanley Cup in 2007. He did a brief stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2009-12, before coming to the Colorado Avalanche in 2013.

Francois Allaire was the goalie coach during that golden Why Not Us season when Avs net minder Semyon Varlamov was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy. It’s the only time Varlamov has been considered for the honor.

In addition to Varlamov, Allaire also coached other Avalanche goalies including Calvin Pickard, Jean-Sebastien Giguere (with the Avs, the Leafs and the Ducks) and Reto Berra. Naturally, throughout his career he’s coached many other goalies, including James Reimer, Ben Scrivens and the popular Ilya Bryzgalov.

It was unsurprising that Allaire left the Colorado Avalanche at the end of the season. His contract was up. The Avalanche were coming off a terrible year, and goal tending was part of the issue (though mostly due to injury). And his one-time protégé had resigned from the team.

It’s maybe a little surprising that he decided to retire. He’s only 57, which isn’t so old for a coach (and Jaromir Jagr may one day show it’s not so old for a player anymore). But 32 years is a good run, and Francois Allaire certainly made his mark on the sport.

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Francois Allaire definitely made his mark on the Colorado Avalanche, both in mentoring their Hall of Fame goalie and eventually serving as a coach here. Thanks, Francois.